This invention relates to the packaging of umbrellas, and particularly seeks to provide in such a package useful equipment which minimizes the need for disposable packaging material. It relates especially to the packaging of golfing umbrellas.
According to the present invention an umbrella is packed in a tube which is adaptable to serve the alternative function of a golf ball pick-up tube. Such packaging has a number of advantages. The tube provides good protection for the umbrella contained within it. The package may also be easily sent through the public mail service with minimal need for further protection or wrapping. In some cases, the package may be manufactured and assembled ready for despatch through the mail to a customer with only the attachment of a label with details of the addressee being required. It will be appreciated then, that packages according to the invention eminently suitable for adoption by mail order sales companies. Indeed, suitable liasion between a mail order company and a manufacturer can provide even for the name and address of a customer to be made visible on the package at the manufacturing stage.
The golf ball pick-up tube in the package of the invention is typically formed in a plastics material and, when adapted to its pick-up function will have a ball pick-up device mounted at one end. The pick-up device is manufactured of a cylindrical element extending co-axially from the tube, with an annular resilient lip extending inwardly to a radius less than that of the tube. This arrangement enables a golf ball to be forced past the lip into the end of the tube, and retained therein behind the lip. Forcing an additional ball past the lip merely carries the earlier ball or balls further into the tube. The other end of the tube may be closed by a cap.
When the tube is housing an umbrella in collapsed form, the golf ball pick-up device and end cap just mentioned may, either or both, be in their pick-up tube functional positions. In some cases however, separate removable end pieces are used to package the umbrella, which pieces are discarded by the customer. In these cases, either or both of the pick-up device and end cap can be housed within the tube around respective ends of the umbrella.
Where the pick-up device and/or the end cap remains on the tube in the package some separate means is provided to prevent the umbrella from leaving the tube through the pick-up device, which may be an integral part of the tube. In one embodiment of the invention, such means may be a golf ball retained behind the lip of the pick-up device and abutting against an end, normally the handle, of the umbrella.
Packages of the invention are normally enclosed in a removable sleeve which a customer will eventually discard. Typically the sleeve is shrink fitted around the tube end whatever end closure mechanism is used. The sleeve may be printed in any number of ways to identify for example, the manufacturer and/or selling organizations, and as noted above, in some cases customer details may also be given.
It is preferred that only plastics material are used predominantly in the manufacture of the components to packages according to the invention, and particularly with respect to the umbrella, reference is directed to British Patent Application No. 8424089, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The tube is normally transparent, and the sleeve may be at least partially transparent also if either the umbrella or some labelling within the tube but around the umbrella is intended to be visible. Normally though, the sleeve will be opaque. The pick-up device is usually moulded in a rubber compound, and can commonly be natural rubber. An end cap if used can also be formed in a soft material although the disposable end pieces will preferably be substantially rigid.